How NIF Works

The National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the world's largest laser system... 192 huge laser beams in a massive building, all focused down at the last moment at a 2 millimeter ball containing frozen hydrogen gas. The goal is to achieve fusion... getting more energy out than was used to create it. It's never been done before under controlled conditions, just in nuclear weapons and in stars. We expect to do it within the next 2-3 years. The purpose is threefold: to create an almost limitless supply of safe, carbon-free, proliferation-free electricity; examine new regimes of astrophysics as well as basic science; and study the inner-workings of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons to ensure they remain safe, secure and reliable without the need for underground testing. More information about NIF can be found at: https://lasers.llnl.gov

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The National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the world's largest laser system... 192 huge laser beams in a massive building, all focused down at the last moment at a 2 millimeter ball containing frozen hydrogen gas. The goal is to achieve fusion......

The National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, is the world&#39;s largest laser system... 192
huge laser beams in a massive building, all focused down at the
last moment at a 2 millimeter ball containing frozen hydrogen gas.
The goal is to achieve fusion... getting more energy out than was
used to create it. It&#39;s never been done before under controlled
conditions, just in nuclear weapons and in stars. We expect to do
it within the next 2-3 years. The purpose is th